The mines of Brazil also produce emeralds, which are striated, and terminate in an obtuse pyramid. They are found in oblong prismes of 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12 unequal planes; they are of a dark green colour, with a brownish tinge, and of a very fine water. A fine emerald, weighing a carat and a half, may be estimated at 5l. sterling: those of two carats at 10l. sterling; but over and above this weight, the value of the emerald does not augment in proportion to its size, and even those of the largest kind, if perfect, are still subject to an arbitrary valuation.
Brazil produces two sorts of chrysolites; the one nearly resembles in colour the stone called by the French jewellers Oriental Peridot,[57] except that it is a little darker, and mixed with yellow; this chrysolite being not so hard as the peridot, the polish is not quite so brilliant. The other Brazil chrysolite is straw coloured, with a tinge of beautiful green, producing a very fine effect: it is extremely hard, and takes an excellent polish. These chrysolites, when of an apple green, or straw colour with a greenish hue, may be estimated at 1l. sterling the carat: 2l. sterling those of two carats; 3l. sterling those of three carats; and so on, always at the rate of 1l. the carat.
Since this Work has been in the Press, Mr. Grant’s History of Brazil has been published; and I have much pleasure in remarking, that his account of the Civil Government, and situation of the Country, is frequently drawn from the same sources as my own. I flatter myself this truly estimable author will pardon my taking notice of an error which has crept into his Work relative to Villegagnon, whom he mentions in the 42d page of his History as having retired (after his return from Brazil) into a monastery of his own order, and spent the remainder of his life in writing against the protestants.[58] The fact is, that there were never any monasteries for men in the order of Malta, and that Villegagnon, soon after he came back from his expedition, was named ambassador from his order to Paris, which post he occupied from 1568 to 1570, when he quitted his embassy on account of ill-health, and died on the 9th of February (and not in the month of December, as said by Léry), 1571, at his commandery of Beauvais.
FINIS.
R. Juigné, Printer, 17, Margaret-st. Cavendish-sq.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Preface to l’Etat du Portugal, page 17.
[2] Etat du Portugal, p. 267.